The European Commission has published a report on the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which sets the obligation for the 22 coastal Member States to establish maritime spatial plans by 31 March 2021 at the latest.

While the majority of the coastal Member States now have a maritime spatial plan in place, eight countries did not make sufficient progress. The report furthermore concludes that Maritime Spatial Planning is an effective and strategic tool to coordinate the different activities at sea and prevent conflicts over the use of maritime space. The EU remains global leader in this area.

The transposition obligations of the Directive are twofold: (1) its transposition into national law and designation of competent authorities by 18 September 2016; (2) the establishment of maritime spatial plans at the latest by 31 March 2021.

All concerned Member States transposed the Directive. The report describes the varying transposition approaches taken by Member States and concludes that the Commission found the transposition into national law to be complete, albeit with some delays.

With regard to the establishment of maritime spatial plans, progress has been mixed. The report distinguishes four groups of Member States: (1) those whose maritime spatial planning processes either predated the directive or that started very early; (2) a large group that succeeded within the deadline fixed by the directive, or missed it by less than one year. This brings the number of MS with a maritime spatial plan in place to 14out of 22. (3) Five Member States did not yet make sufficient progress towards establishing maritime spatial plans in line with the directive’s requirements, so that the Commission sent them letters of formal notice on 2 December 2021.  (4) Several Member States are advanced in producing draft plans and proceeding towards final adoption, which should happen in the coming months. For the latter, the Commission is closely monitoring progress and will take action as appropriate.

The report concludes that Maritime Spatial Planning is an effective and strategic tool to coordinate the different activities at sea and prevent conflicts over the use of maritime space.

The European Commission news release can be read here.  The full report can be downloaded from here.